2007-04-13 A Thoroughly Enjoyable Read

Although I first saw Cynthia Morey on stage when she was principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (she was undoubtedly the most arch and calculating Rose Maybud I have ever seen, and I mean that as a compliment!) I didn't actually meet her until we worked together in a musical called R Loves J at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer of 1973. We hit it off immediately, and I am happy to say that I have enjoyed her friendship ever since. We have enjoyed numerous laughs together!

I always knew that Cynthia was a superb and superbly professional singer, a gifted actress, a talented artist and a wonderful story teller: her two volumes of reminiscences (Inclined to Dance and Sing, primarily an account of her time with D'Oyly Carte, and A Set of Curious Chances, an account of her life post D'Oyly Carte) attest to that. I knew, too, that Cynthia has developed a fine reputation as an imaginative and gifted stage director of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, both amateur and professional. She is also a sought-after concert and cabaret performer, and has produced pantomime and other scripts for stage and television. More recently, John Reed entrusted Cynthia with the task of preparing his autobiography for publication - and a fine job she made of it, too!

And now she reveals yet another talent; Cynthia has become a novelist! A World That's All Our Own was published by Paragon Publishing in December last year. Apparently, the book began life as a play, written when she was appearing in Me and My Girl at London's Adelphi Theatre in 1984. The novel, however, certainly doesn't read like an adaptation. Cynthia writes that "there are no murders,no crime and no violence in my story; it's just a peep behind the scenes as an amateur operatic society puts on its annual production [of The Pirates of Penzance]." This is a world that Cynthia knows well, and it shows! Anybody who has ever been a member of an amateur operatic society, whether on stage, behind the scenes or front of house, will recognise the characters in Cynthia's delightful novel. They might even recognise themselves...

A World That's All Our Own is a thoroughly enjoyable read, written with style, humour, compassion and understanding. It was one of those books that I couldn't wait to finish, but at the same time I never wanted it to end! I can't wait for Cynthia's next novel.

Incidentally, lest you should think that I have written so enthusiastically about this book because Cynthia is my friend, let me assure you that if I hadn't enjoyed it, I'd have kept my mouth shut, and kept my fingers crossed that she didn't ask me what I thought of it next time I saw her!